Global Climate News: June 26-27
Data centres in space, Superconducting transmission lines,Hemp carbon credits, Solar panel lifecycle emissions, India's nuclear plan
In this newsletter
Data centres and AI in space
Climate + Energy Startups
Top stories
Data centres and AI in Space
In 2023, the European Commission initiated a feasibility study to determine if data centres could be put into orbit, drawing energy from the sun 24x7, and significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with them.
The project, titled ‘ASCEND’, has confirmed that orbital data centres are economically viable. Modular structures would be sent to orbit via multiple launches, and assembled in orbit using robots. ASCEND aims to deploy 1GW of orbital data centre capacity by 2050. CNBC | Press Release | ASCEND project
US-based Loft Orbital has already deployed test satellites with GPUs available for computing. They partnered with AGENIUM Space, to use the GPUs for training, optimizing and executing deep neural networks. As of November 2023, the neural nets were successfully used for detecting target objects, such as ships. Loft also has a partnership with Microsoft Azure that will allow developers to use compute on-board satellites for deploying their applications. This transitions satellites from mere collectors of data, to collectors + processors of data.
Many countries are also looking into Space-based Solar, which was covered in an earlier edition of this newsletter.
Climate + Energy Startups
Low-carbon cement
One way to capture CO2 is to bind it with minerals such as limestone, but significant heat and energy are required to release the bound CO2 at temperatures of 1800F. US-based Queens Carbon has developed a hydrothermal process that reduces the temperature of this process for releasing CO2 from limestone to 1000F, thus reducing the energy used. The process is also being used to make supplementary cementitious material (SCM), a component of concrete, from industry-standard raw materials. SCMs, like fly ash and silica, are added to concrete to make it cheaper and increase its strength. Queen Carbon’s SCMs can be used to replace 20-50% of the typical SCMs used, which come from carbon-intensive sources such as coal power plants. (Fly ash is a by-product of coal combustion) businesswire | About Queen’s Carbon
Canada-based ZS2 Technologies is working on similar technology. They capture CO2 using brine rich in magnesium and calcium, forming magnesium and calcium carbonates. The water content of this mixture is reduced, forming a slurry, which is further dehydrated, pressed and cured to make pre-cast cement products. These cement sheets can directly be used at construction sites.
Hemp Carbon Credits
Canada-based HEMPALTA partners with farms to grow industrial hemp, which is said to absorb CO2 more efficiently than other plants. After measuring and verifying the CO2 absorbed, credits are generated and sold in voluntary carbon markets. The company processes hemp fibers for use in food storage packs, cat litter, garden mulch, building materials and even food.
UK-based Supercritical is a carbon removal marketplace that “offers a single, live view of availability and pricing across 80% of the world’s high-quality biochar projects.”
Superconducting transmission lines
US-based VEIR is developing superconducting transmission lines that can transmit 5-10 times more power than conventional lines at a given voltage level. The company’s first product is an AC overhead line that can operate with capacities upto 400MW and voltage of up to 69 kV. VEIR has done two outdoor demonstrations of its product, and is aiming for its first high-power commercial-scale pilot in 2026. MIT News | VEIR
Top Stories
India is working on 7 new nuclear reactors, which are expected to increase installed nuclear capacity to 13.08 GW by 2029. Current nuclear capacity is 7.48 GW. Government Press Release
Cadmium-Telluride (CdTe) solar panels have lowest lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions - 25.2 g of CO2 per kWh - compared to other types of solar panels, as per 2023 data analysed by IEA. CdTe panels also generate enough energy in ~10 months to account for the energy that was used to produce them. pv magazine | IEA-PVPS - Environmental Life-Cycle Assessment of Electricity from PV Systems (PDF)
Hydrogen in Scotland - a new report has estimated that 35 GW of electrolyser capacity could be installed across 4 energy hubs in the country by 2045, and that at a scale of 10GW capacity, hydrogen could be produced for £3.90/kg using energy from floating offshore wind farms. The report is by Net Zero Technology Centre, a UK-government funded non-profit. OGV Energy | Net Zero Technology Centre - Energy Hubs Report (PDF)
New oil fields should include end-use emissions in environmental impact assessment - In an unprecedented ruling, the UK Supreme Court has said that the decision of a local council to grant planning permission to an oil extraction project in its area was “unlawful” as it failed to consider the entire greenhouse gas emissions from the project. The Surrey County Council had approved a project to extract oil from 6 wells over 20 years, after the developer of the project argued that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) should consider only emissions during extraction of oil, onsite, and not final emissions from burning the fuel. However, residents in the area appealed to courts, claiming that combustion emissions must be considered. After appeals were rejected by lower courts, the Supreme court has ruled in favour of the residents claiming that combustion emissions are “within the scope of the EIA required by law”.
Serious health effects of ultra-fine particles from aviation fuel use - New research links several serious health conditions with high levels of ultra-fine particles near airports in Europe. It estimates that “exposure to ultrafine particles may be associated with 280,000 cases of high blood pressure, 330,000 cases of diabetes, and 18,000 cases of dementia in Europe”. The numbers are extrapolated based on reported cases of these illnesses around Amsterdam Schiphol airport.
Ultrafine particles are particularly concerning because they penetrate deeply into the human body and have been found in the blood, brain and placenta. UFPs are below the size of 100 nanometres in diameter - approximately 1,000 times smaller than a human hair. To date, there is no regulation on safe levels of UFPs in the air, even though the WHO warned it was a pollutant of emerging concern over 15 years ago.
UFPs from planes are emitted at high altitude but also at take-off and landing meaning residents living near airports are particularly affected. People living in a 5km radius from an airport breathe in air that contains, on average, anything from 3,000 to 10,000 ultrafine particles per cm3 emitted by aircraft.
New framework from Gold Standard on climate mitigation strategies for corporates
You can find all previous posts of this newsletter here.
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